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Zucca has four 26,000 BTU gas burners, an induction burner, and an 80,000 BTU wok burner, with a gas oven and an electric oven. It is made from rhubarb, with a distinctive taste. It is moderately bitter, in the style of Cynar. Use it where you would another vivid amaro. It comes in a 1 liter bottle and is a little hard to find, at least around Boston. I wouldn't consider it indispensable (as I would Campari and Cynar), but it is a very welcome addition to the bar of a bitter lover.

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Zucca has four 26,000 BTU gas burners, an induction burner, and an 80,000 BTU wok burner, with a gas oven and an electric oven. It is made from rhubarb, with a distinctive taste. It is moderately bitter, in the style of Cynar. Use it where you would another vivid amaro. It comes in a 1 liter bottle and is a little hard to find, at least around Boston. I wouldn't consider it indispensable (as I would Campari and Cynar), but it is a very welcome addition to the bar of a bitter lover.

Great. I've grown quite attached to the bitter family... and here's yet another that will probably never make it to the LCBO. grumble grumble grumble

The S&C and pinch of salt filtered out much of the bold bitterness of the Fernet and left behind some periphery botanicals that really made this drink. Probably could have left out the egg white, not sure if it did much in this case.

this was pretty cool. i've made it in the past, but it has been a few years.

i carbonated the ginger beer with my new custom carbonator. i bought a peugeot champagne stopper and a plastic molding kit. the pump that is intended for use with the stopper basically doesn't work so i molded and recast the threaded plug imbedding in it a gas fitting. with the custom molded plug, i reuse their collar to latch onto a champagne bottle and their food safe seal with one-way valve. it works really well. i've made versions that use standard gas fitting for over night slow carbonation and versions that use chromed "schrader" quick release valves (idea courtesy milwaukee makerspace blog. with the schrader valves you can set your regulator to 55 psi gas up the bottle and shake to carbonate up to 20 psi fairly quickly. i'm using 375ml champagne bottles that can be recapped with 29mm crown caps for aesthetic elegance. the schraders also easily adapt (more easily) to conventional soda bottles.

**ginger beer for one liter batch

90grams non aromatic white sugar

300 ml ginger juice (cut across the grain and juice with an acme)

650 or so ml sweet potato water

the sweet potato water was made from boiling peeled sweet potatoes with water, blending, then centrifuging to create an aromatic water. you can probably clarify them easy enough by also running them through the acme.

don't centrifuge the ginger juice. what ever makes it piquant will come out of solution.

if your piquancy fades add a tincture of cayenne dissolved in spirits.

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After reading all about Bermuda rum swizzles here, had my first ever at my favorite bar in DC, the Passenger:

Made with Blackwell rum, something I've never seen before. True to form -or as I've read- it got icy condensation on the outside of the glass, and was properly delicious. I must learn how to make these...

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Skipped the egg white on your suggestion and had no Tiki bitters, but this is wonderful. I used Cointreau and about 1/2 oz of simple. I think 3/8oz would be perfect for me, or the egg white.

I also made a variation with Cynar (no egg white, no bitters, about 1/4 oz simple). Excellent. I would like to have the Bittermens Tiki bitters to try.

Thanks Dan, glad you enjoyed it. From your posts you seem to like your cocktails a bit drier than I prefer mine but I'd also like to try this with less simple; the original didn't feel cloying to me but given the bolder ingredients "self-regulated" more than I had envisioned the simple wasn't as crucial. A touch less could maintain balance and maybe let some other flavors through. I'll have to give the Cynar version a spin.

a great drink. a tincture of ginger or chili is the only thing that could elevate it.

the highlight of the drink is licking the residual liquid off of the swizzle stick. the high acid flavor converges perfectly with the angular-crystal-texture of the rock candy stick.

**i grew the rock candy swizzle stick in green chartreuse by sugaring the chartreuse an estimated 50 grams per liter over its maximum room temp sucrose solubility. the extra sugar and chartreuse were put in a canning jar and heated in a water bath until it all dissolved. seed points for the crystals to form on were built on the stick by dipping them in syrup, sprinkling with sugar, then dehydrating them in the dehydrator for an hour or so. the crystals take a week to form, making them far from viable in a commercial context. they didn't pick up much of the green color, but picked up some of the aroma. next up i'll see if campari has more non volatile that the crystals can pick up.

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I went to a class this weekend and learned to make a delicious cucumber lemonade that can be used as base for cocktails. Our instructors were local mixologists Lucien Conner and Ian Ward of Snake Oil Cocktail company, who designed the cocktail menu at whisknladle, among other places.

The cucumber lemonade (made with cucumber water) is great on its own, but adding a little gin doesn't hurt. It's very fresh/green and tart.

I imagine that tequila or white rum would be good too. I used Hendrick's gin for its cucumber notes.

This lemonade gives me a lot of new ideas for summer cocktails.

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Sometimes going in the opposite direction works when picking ingredients. Since you already have an overwhelming amount of cucumber flavor (or aroma) from the cucumber itself, picking a gin with complementary contrasting botanicals might work -- maybe a classic juniper-forward London dry?

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Sometimes going in the opposite direction works when picking ingredients. Since you already have an overwhelming amount of cucumber flavor (or aroma) from the cucumber itself, picking a gin with complementary contrasting botanicals might work -- maybe a classic juniper-forward London dry?

Until the price went from "too high" to "insulting", Plymouth was my choice for pairing against cucumber.

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Sometimes going in the opposite direction works when picking ingredients. Since you already have an overwhelming amount of cucumber flavor (or aroma) from the cucumber itself, picking a gin with complementary contrasting botanicals might work -- maybe a classic juniper-forward London dry?

Until the price went from "too high" to "insulting", Plymouth was my choice for pairing against cucumber.

It's funny that you both reacted to my gin choice. I can't say that I disagree with you. I had a little debate with my husband last night on that very subject but I decided to let him have his way...

Here is the whole story. I made quite a bit of this cucumber lemonade last Saturday so we had a chance to try it with various gins over the weekend. Initially, I very foolishly reached for a bottle of Junipero, my motivation being that there were only a few ounces left and that I wanted to kill that bottle. Talk about contrast! I love Junipero in some other applications (Negroni, Cin Cyn, etc) but it was absolutely hideous in that drink (definitely not "complementary"!).

Then we tried the cucumber lemonade with Tanqueray at our friends' - a great match, perfect balance, really great.

Last night I discussed our options with my husband since we did not have Tanqueray and Junipero was out of the question. I was considering Plymouth or Beefeater. He wanted to try it Hendrick's, which got lost a little in the drink due to lack of contrast. It was, of course, much better than the Junipero, but I agree with both of you, not the best match.

Next time I would use Plymouth or Beefeater. I was thinking that Bols genever could be also an interesting option with smoky flavors that could add another dimension to the drink, similar to a John Collins.

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I forgot to add that, after the Junipero debacle, I rescued the drink by adding a few drops of Serrano extract that a friend made. It managed to counter-balance the juniper and add a nice finish. I only used a couple of drops.

Genever plus cucumber sounds like some kind of bartender inside joke

Scratching my head...?

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Haha see! It is an inside joke! Let's just say in this biz I've known many an iconoclastic individual with an axe to grind, many of whom feel like the cucumber thing is sort of played out. Hence take an "acquired taste" gin and add cucumber....

Not saying it wouldn't be good, mind you.

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Haha see! It is an inside joke! Let's just say in this biz I've known many an iconoclastic individual with an axe to grind, many of whom feel like the cucumber thing is sort of played out. Hence take an "acquired taste" gin and add cucumber....

Not saying it wouldn't be good, mind you.

Thanks for clarifying.

It's true that there are a lot of gin-cucumber drinks.

It's just fun to kick it up another notch... I have a feeling that it would work. And I am looking for excuses to use genever.

this is pretty cool bitter-sour. the aroma of the tamarind liqueur augments the tonality of the campari to something really lovely. the whiskey gets lost amid the other more significant attentional features.

lactic acid, which is a volatile acid, is important to whiskeys. this one takes it to the n'th degree and a strange & ghostly illusion of creaminess lurks in the whiskey when consumed straight.

if you want to accumulate lactic acid for any culinary reason, these acidulated malts are a really cool and affordable source.

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Attended a whisk(e)y "class" last weekend at the Holeman & Finch Pub which I quite enjoyed. It featured about 6 different spirits to include Scotch, Irish, Canadian and American. Been meaning to post a couple of pics but keep forgetting. Nothing like getting moderately hammered starting about 11:30 in the morning! In addition to the whiskey tasting there were a couple of cocktails to include a mint julep using a tender 3yo straight bourbon from Big Bottom Whiskey out of Oregon. They also dredged up an old cocktail that didn't seem like it should work that I found rather pleasant in spite of itself, the Cameron's Kick. They used the Irishman 70 and a Benromach Traditional Speyside single malt as I recall (although it traditionally calls for a blended whisky like Famous Grouse), lemon, orgeat (They used B.G. Reynolds) and a bit of orange peel expressed over the drink and dropped in.

Tried that drink again again last night, this time with Johnnie Walker red (no Grouse in the house) and Bushmills white and must say it was quite pleasant again even with more basic spirits.

Then I decided to try something from the latest edition of Imbibe and settled on the "Ce Soir" which apparently means something like "tonight" or "this evening".

Includes a VSOP cognac (suggests the new Ferrand 1840 which I haven't been able to track down yet so I used my basic house cognac, Chalfonte), Cynar and yellow Chartreuse with orange and angostura bitters, stirred and served up in a chilled glass with a lemon peel expressed and discarded.

Seemed like an interesting but potentially challenging collection of ingredients but I found it quite pleasant!

I do keep forgetting to break open the Drambuie 15 so maybe I will get to that one tonight.

shake with mint and double strain. garnish with mint to provide top notes.

someone asked for a gin & mint cocktail last night so i made him the above. i've never seen someone order a second so quickly. i made one for myself later to see what it was all about. sort of bitter and sort of sour, with gorgeous aromatic tonality. some rare grapefruit like fruit is conjured.

the tamarind ponche had sat on the shelf for quite a while. it has a ton of its own acidity so it cannot make comfortable 2:1:1 sours, but seems to lend itself well to this template which i think i borrowed from the "Maximilian Affair".

there is no jamaican rum at the office, so i think i may try making it with armagnac next. i think the tamarind ponche could best be synthesized by subbing 1:1 st. germain & plymouth slow gin.